Cable briefs

Press, 26 November 1981, Page 8

Cable briefs

Resolution ignored

Indonesia will disregard a United Nations resolution passed this week favouring independence for East Timor, and “will go on with the development of the area,” a spokesman of the Foreign Office has said. The office said: “East Timor is an internal affair of Indonesia.” East Timor, formerly a Portuguese colony, was incorporated into Indonesia in July, 1976, after a civil war between a pro-Indonesia faction and the Leftist Fretilin movement that wanted independence for East Timor.— Jakarta.

Vote of confidence

The Greek Socialist Government has won a parliamentary vote of confidence in its policies, including possible withdrawal from the N.A.T.O. alliance and the European Economic Community. The vote came at the end of a three-day debate, during which the Prime Minister (Mr Andreas Papandreou) called for what he termed a special arrangement with the E.E.C., negotiations on continued membership of N.A.T.0., and the closure of American bases in Greece. He said he intended to ask the President to call a referendum on continued membership of the Market—Athens.

Budget cuts

European Economic Community governments agreed on a 1982 draft Budget yesterday, imposing swinging cuts on spending plans drawn up by the European Parliament, diplomatic sources said. “There was an atmosphere of austerity reflecting our own national budget problems,” the British Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Nicholas Ridley) told journalists after a marathon 16-hour meeting of E.E.C. Budget Minsters. The Ministers cut hundreds of millions of dollars from funds voted by the Parliament as aid for the Community’s poorest regions and for action to' curb unemployment—Brussels.

U.N. compromise?

China may be willing to lift its veto against the United Nations SecretaryGeneral, Kurt Waldheim, to permit an extension of his term by a year, and possibly by up to three years, diplomatic sources have said. The security council, which nominates the Secretary-General for appointment by the General Assembly, would probably meet next week to consider the matter, the sources addded. Dr Waldheim’s bid for a third fiveyear term has been blocked by the Chinese who favour the Tanzanian Foreign Minister, Salim Ahmed Salim, for the post—New York.

Accused takes ill

Pierre de Varga, the leading accused in the Prince Jean de Broglie murder trial in Paris, has had a heart attack in his prison cell and is unable to go to court. The trial, called the “French Watergate” by Judge Andre Giresse who is hearing it, is in its fourth week. De Varga is accused of ordering police inspector Guy Simone to hire a killer, Guy Freche, for about $ll,OOO through the intermediary of the fourth accused. No reasonable motive for the murder has been uncovered in the hearing so far, leading Judge Giresse to allege that the French police and a former Interior Minister, Michel Poniatowski, were responsible for obstructing justice during the initial investigations. The Prince was shot dead on Christmas Eve, 1976, in Paris.—Paris.